


Singularity S1E5: "Falling Upwards"

by Marc_Quill



Series: Marc Quill's Singularity [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Conspiracy Thriller, M/M, Mystery, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 19:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8026486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marc_Quill/pseuds/Marc_Quill
Summary: Still reeling from falling into a state that turned her into a mind-controlled weapon of destruction, Skye finds herself weakening both mentally and physically... which makes it the perfect opportunity for SDI to launch an unrelenting assault to finally break their superhuman target.Unfortunately for the sinister masterminds behind Project Singularity, they just might not know who they're dealing with. Even with her mind now more fractured than it has ever been, Skye is ready to fight to the bitter end... but, will this be truly her last stand?Meanwhile, Finn finds himself at a crossroad. After barely escaping certain death, he now faces a choice that may very well change his life forever. As the old saying goes, however, "old habits die hard."In any case, these two heroes just may be in for the fight of their very lives in the face of a conspiracy that's now more deadlier than ever. Can Skye & Finn survive the onslaught of SDI and the Singularity conspiracy? Or has their luck finally run out?





	1. Chapter 1

**_Previously on_ ** **Singularity…**

“Our top story right now… Toronto Police have issued a city-wide search and arrest warrant for a young woman only identified to several individuals as ‘Skye’, who has been seen in surveillance footage at Psi MediLabs attacking two security guards during the early hours of January 19th, 2016.

The warrant was brought forward yesterday after a violent incident at Kensington Market involving Skye and Francis Auerbach, a 35-year-old Scarborough native who is an employee of the SDI Corporation. Witnesses allege that Skye attempted to viciously assault Auerbach in an alleyway nearby. Others dispute the accusations of Skye’s violent outburst, stating that she was trying to stop a shooting that occurred several minutes ago at that time.

In a phone interview earlier, Chief Alexandra MacDonald mentioned yet another Skye-related incident that occurred yesterday at the University of Toronto’s Robarts Library. Chief MacDonald told City-One News that Skye may have shot at several Toronto Police officers when confronting her and a male accomplice as they were about to be arrested. It is believed that Skye may have post-human abilities much like the many post-human persons that have been cropping up around the city. She is considered extremely dangerous and Police advise citizens to report any sightings anonymously through CrimeStoppers Toronto.

As always, keep it here on City-One News as we continue to follow this developing story that’s sweeping our city.”

—

**Act I – The Long Goodbye**

**_SafeHaven Homeless Shelter – January 27th, 2016_ **

For someone who nearly died twice in a single day, Finn had himself a good night’s sleep… more or less.

Usually, recovery time for a gunshot wound like the one Finn suffered yesterday would take as long as a few months. Fortunately for Finn, it helped to have a friend with superhuman self-healing abilities like Skye.

It was still unclear whether or not having a bit of Skye’s blood coursing through his veins would grant Finn superhuman abilities aside from healing his injuries, but he was incredibly grateful to have been saved from the brink of death by someone he saw as a friend.

“You feeling alright, Sk–” Finn struggled to say before noticing that a certain someone was missing from the couch she was sleeping on for the umpteenth time.

“Dammit, not again…” Finn knew what was coming next, almost like a routine of sorts.

Skye had disappeared once again. No sign of her anywhere in the apartment. Finn was hoping that this was just another case of Skye taking an early morning run.

Without hesitation, Finn yelped in pain as he struggled more than usual to lift himself up from bed. Even though he was basically unable to move much — even with the small portion of Skye’s blood inside him that accelerated the recovery process from his injuries — finding his friend was of greater importance.

Finn had endured some rough shit (as he’d put it in his own words) together with Skye as they seeked the truth about a deadly conspiracy that had them both targeted by way of Finn’s association with the superpowered nomad he befriended.

He just couldn’t fathom that after everything they’ve been through, this is how things would end for him and Skye. Not with a bang, but with a disappearance.

After a few minutes of desperate searching, Finn noticed a letter left on the coffee table, next to his cellphone and the other things littered on it. The letter was labeled with his name, written in a messy typeface, as if whoever wrote it was in some sort of a hurry.

With that letter in hand, Finn unfurled it and began to read:

—

_Finn,_

_If you’re able to read this, then it means you’ve recovered from your near-fatal injuries with some added assistance from my own blood. For that I say that I am more than glad that you’re okay. It also means that you’ve probably found out by now that I’m not anywhere in your apartment._

_Seeing you almost die twice in one day because of my actions made me realize something. It made me realize that in order to protect you… to protect Ava… to protect everyone else from whatever it is SDI is planning to do to me, I have to stop them alone._

_It’s why I’ve decided to leave SafeHaven and go seek out the head of SDI so that I can finally end this madness myself. I know you’ll want to come to help me, but I’m asking you as your friend to simply just rest up instead._

_Just think about the life that you’ve got ahead of you and your boyfriend Stephen and how it can all go up in smoke with one wrong move. Having seen how much you care for Stephen, it would pain me so much to be indirectly responsible for destroying that love you share._

_I still don’t know why the hell I lost control back at Kensington Market yesterday, but I do know that as long as you’re with me in my current state, you’re not safe. Nobody is._

_One day, I hope you’ll understand that I’m doing this to save your life. When this is all done, I promise you that I’ll come back for you._

_I thank you for all that you’ve done for me, Finch Finwick, and I sincerely hope we meet again sooner rather than later. Not as part of some conspiracy hunt. But simply as friends._

_Skye_

_—_

Even though Finn really didn’t want to believe what he was reading, he knew deep down that Skye had a very good reason for all this.

Finn had known that Skye largely blamed herself for almost getting him killed yesterday, and whatever it was that she was doing was her way of coping with it.

He didn’t have to necessarily like what Skye was doing, but he understood why she decided to head out alone.

As if on cue, the vibrating and chimes of Blue Suede’s “Hooked On A Feeling” signalled that Finn was getting a call from Stephen O’Day, his hockey-playing boyfriend. Instinctively, he picked up his cellphone and answered.

Finn hoped that O’Day had some good news for him. Heaven knew that he needed something to lift up his spirits after reading Skye’s letter.

“Oh, hey, Stevie.” Finn weakly coughed out. “You and the team doing fine?”

“I prolly should be asking if you’re doing fine, Finch…” O’Day’s voice rang out from Finn’s cellphone. “Is this ‘Skylar’ you keep talking about dragging you into trouble by any chance?”

“Well… she kinda left this morning,” Finn said with a hint of sadness. “She said she had some things to take care of by herself. Also, her name is Skye.”

Skye had only been gone for a few hours, and Finn already missed her presence. It was like there was a hole in his heart created by the twenty year-old superhuman disappearing on him.

“Ah, that kinda sucks.” O’Day didn’t know a lot about Skye beyond Finn’s stories about her, but he was sympathetic to his boyfriend’s lament. “About that text yesterday, you feeling okay enough to see me and the team take on Binghamton in three days?”

“Unh… not exactly well at the moment,” Finn sighed. “But, maybe I’ll be just fine in time for Saturday. Then maybe we can catch dinner together after the game. Sound cool, Stevie?”

“Whatever’s fine with you, Finch.” O’Day replied, managing to keep a tone of slight flirtatiousness. “Hope you get better, buddy and I’ll see ya on Saturday.”

“Love you too, S.” Finn signed off before hanging up. After the call was done, he laid back down on his bed, hoping to get some much-needed rest. He had a lot to ponder about, and perhaps a good sleep might’ve helped with that process.

—

_The Mission._

_That’s all that mattered._

_A woman stood amongst the ashes. Her Mission accomplished. Her focus singular. Her rage tranquil, yet fierce._

_Her eyes were cold. Her heartbeats remained unnaturally steady, even as she looked at the blood that stained her hands._

_Bodies everywhere. They stood in her way. They stood in the way of The Mission. And so they paid the price._

_The woman looked down upon the fallen. Two corpses caught her eye: one twenty-something male with brown hair, the other a teenaged girl._

_The woman glanced and felt a slight bit of familiarity. Whoever these two were, they seemingly put up a fight, but all for naught._

_Their screams played over and over in her head._

_She felt no remorse._

_They might have been her friends a lifetime ago, but today they stood in the way of The Mission._

_For that, they suffered her wrath._

—

**_An Under Construction Italian Restaurant on Eglinton – Lunchtime_ **

Skye forced herself awake after having yet another torturous nightmare. These kinds of dreams were nothing new, but a vision of murdering her friends in cold blood was an entirely different thing altogether that she had never experienced.

She had only known Finn for a short while and Ava for an even smaller amount of time,  but Skye valued them both as friends and as a family of sorts.

Naturally, it came to no surprise that the idea of even laying a finger on either one would be something that disturbed Skye greatly.

She sat up and looked at a mirror that was one of the things partially completed in this soon-to-open Italian eatery.

“Heh… you look like hell…” Skye quietly remarked at the mirror image of herself. Her look at the moment gave her a light chuckle, even if the how of ending up like this wasn’t exactly a funny story.

Skye’s pixie-cut hair was in disarray after a rough, short sleep cycle. She spent most of the early hours after leaving SafeHaven looking for a temporary place to stay, which really didn’t help her sleep. She ended up having to sleep on the dilapidated floor of the under-construction restaurant she was staying in, which was a definite far cry from Finn’s couch.

Her eyes were red and puffy from the crying that seemed to have gotten worse as soon as she left Finn’s apartment. Leaving her friend in the physical condition he was in was likely the hardest thing she had ever done in her twenty year old life.

Suffice to say, Skye was a mess both in appearance and emotional state.

Even though she wanted to believe that she was fine and there was nothing to worry about, Skye could not lie to herself like that. There was something frighteningly wrong with her, and she wasn’t going to rest until she found out how it was connected to SDI and the Singularity conspiracy.

Skye pulled out the maple leaf notebook (also making sure to draw an eight-point starburst design on the cover) from her bag and began to read it intently.

In addition to all the other notes and pictures Finn had placed in there, Skye added some notes of her own.

These notes she added were mostly culled from the research Finn did yesterday, as well as whatever she scrounged about the Manchurian Candidate-like state she found herself in.

Unsurprisingly, that page had a lot of notes scribbled, as it seemed that her uncharacteristic outburst had most of Skye’s attention.

Being chased endlessly by private military contractors under the employ of a genetics firm with no moral qualms was one thing, but what Skye nearly did while under that strange form of mind control was something completely different and unsettling.

Skye never really thought of herself as a “hero” by any chance, but she damn well knew that she wasn’t some sort of murderous psychopath… even if there was apparently some latent programming embedded within her that could’ve easily turned her into a killer at the drop of a dime.

At the centre of the page was a certain symbol that plagued Skye as much as SDI and its hired guns did. It was something that never escaped her thoughts even beyond the time she spent in Toronto. It was, of course, that stylized arrowhead sigil that had some form of connection to both the Singularity conspiracy and whatever made Skye the way she was.

 _“Just what the hell does it mean?”_ Skye’s mind reeled in her continued brainstorming.

Skye kept writing notes all over the page, faintly realizing that she had seen the symbol in her head before her auto-pilot rampage yesterday. It was probably the only thing she remembered without being reminded by Finn or Ava.

“Mystery Symbol -> Cause of Mind Meltdown?”

“What Did SDI Do To Me? Why Do They Want Me?”

“Superpowers? How?”

Now it was simply a matter of connecting the dots and finding out what SDI’s obsessive hunt had to do with it.

“Maybe Dr. Dover can help me with all this…” Skye muttered to herself.

Perhaps the good doctor (and apparent former Health Canada employee) that she, Finn and Ava rescued from SDI’s grasp had the answers she was looking for.

—

**_SDI Mobile Operations Vehicle – 1300 Hours_ **

Samuel Brandt sat inside the advanced mobile base for his SDI-supported strike team, deep in a rare state of inner thought.

Like always, Brandt’s thoughts were focused on Skye — the “asset” that he was brought in by “The Chief” to apprehend — particularly of his unit’s confrontation with their superpowered target and her young ally at Robarts Library yesterday.

While the idea of yet again failing to catch Skye was on Brandt’s mind, there was another image in his head that left a seemingly lasting impression on him.

A lasting image of fear and doubt.

Brandt recalled looking into the green-hued eyes of his target last night, seeing first-hand Skye’s usual defiant stare being supplanted by one of despair.

The fact that Skye chose flight over fight when faced with a standoff against Brandt’s army was seemingly an indicator of this newfound fear the ex-JTF-2 operative saw in his prey.

Whatever it was that he saw, Brandt knew that it was a telltale sign that his team was coming very close to shattering Skye’s spirit.

All it took was one last step. One final act to ultimately force Skye to give in to SDI’s demands without a fight.

Brandt chuckled to himself at the thought of potentially ending Skye’s threat permanently without even lifting a finger.

One of Brandt’s subordinates, Jenkins, approached his superior.

“Sir, you’ve got a call from The Chief,” Jenkins spoke. “He’d like a mission report.”

The giant monitor that Brandt was facing flickered on, revealing the image of The Chief — concealed in the shadows, as per the usual.

“Brandt… I trust that the mission went off without difficulties?” The Chief questioned.

Brandt had been pulled away from searching for Skye and Finn at Robarts Library for another mission. A mission that was of great importance for The Chief.

“Yes, sir. My team is simply awaiting our next orders…” Brandt answered confidently.

“You’ll have to keep waiting, then, Brandt.” The Chief intoned. “You and your Task Force have done enough. Report back to Base Alpha immedia–”

“I’m sorry, Chief,” Brandt snapped back. “We have Skye right where we want her. You can’t pull us out when we’re this close to finally breaking her wil–”

“Know your place, Brandt.” The Chief was fuming. “Your team has done an admirable job in handling our shared problem… but now it is time for you to stand aside and let the next phase of our plans bear fruit.”

Brandt swallowed his pride and saluted The Chief. He was none too pleased with being benched when his moment of glory was at hand, but the veteran soldier knew that Skye’s final fate was for The Chief and SDI to decide.


	2. Chapter 2

**Act II – It Hits The Fan**

**_King Street West – Meeting Dr. Dover_ **

Fittingly, the snow was bearing down on the city of Toronto as Skye paced her way along King Street West. The walk from Eglinton to downtown Toronto was a bit more manageable by virtue of having post-Olympian-like speed.

On a television screen placed within window view of a small pub, Skye noticed a news report on Toronto Police releasing a picture of her based on eyewitness accounts of last night as she was now a wanted fugitive.

The image of Skye on the pub TV made sure to emphasize her now-trademark purple/pink hair, which only made her all the more glad that she decided to change things up in terms of appearance.

Skye spent most of lunch at that under-construction restaurant on Eglinton dyeing her hair in a light blue/white hair mix (incidentally, in a shade of sky blue, a fact that tickled her fancy) before heading out. She also trimmed said hair a small bit in an attempt to further conceal her identity.

Her brown grim reaper-adorned jacket was also a casualty of these sweeping changes, now being replaced by a simple-looking dark blue coat that bore stylized white wing symbols on its shoulders like that brown jacket did.

Skye found her new jacket in one of the washrooms in that Italian eatery she temporarily stayed in. Someone had left it by mistake, but it really wasn’t her issue. Finders keepers, after all.

To complete the new look, Skye borrowed one of Finn’s zip-up hoodies from his drawer back at SafeHaven, wearing it underneath the blue jacket and making sure to have the hood covering her head.

The only thing that seemed to carry over from her old look was that rabbit pendant Ava Lorenz had given her yesterday. Skye had said necklace worn around her neck as a reminder of what was at stake. She still had a promise to fulfill for Ava, after all.

Skye wasn’t just determined to stop SDI’s conspiracy to figure out its connections to her own mysteries, but for everyone who had been affected by it, Ava included among them.

She really wasn’t going to get anywhere if the Toronto Police were tailing her every move, so a change of appearance was Skye’s only option to help her move around unimpeded.

Once Skye reached the King West Medical Building, she entered and went to look for where Dr. Douglas Dover’s office was.

The last time Skye paid a visit to the good Dr. Dover, she had been unsuccessful in preventing him from being kidnapped by SDI’s commandos for its Project: Unity experiments.

Skye took the elevator, exiting once it reached the fourth floor. She then walked towards Dr. Dover’s office, remembering right away where it was.

That secretary who fainted in terror during the SDI attack appeared to be doing well for herself on this day as she welcomed Skye into the office.

“Are you scheduled for an appointment with Dr. Dover, miss?” The secretary asked.

“Not exactly…” Skye answered right back. “But, I do need to see him for something.”

“He should be in his off–” The secretary began to talk, before being interrupted by Dr. Dover’s arrival from a lunch break.

He seemed surprised and a bit taken aback to see Skye standing in the waiting area.

“Kathy, did our young friend here book an appointment?” Dover asked his secretary.

“I think you might know why I’m here…” Skye pulled back her hoodie to reveal her blue-and-white haircut.

“I am glad we can meet under circumstances that don’t involve life or death matters…” Dover remarked. “Come right this way, and we can continue in private.”

It appeared that his office was still in the process of being touched up after the damage sustained from the SDI raid.

“For someone who’s basically Toronto’s most wanted criminal, you’ve got quite the courage to visit me.” Dover sat down behind his desk and made himself comfortable.

Even if he was told by the news media that Skye was a dangerous criminal that deserved to be locked up, Dr. Dover refused to believe those reports.

Dover had seen Skye’s heroic nature in person when she and Finn rescued him from the Project: Unity experiments recently. He definitely knew firsthand that Skye was a good person and not the fugitive that Toronto Police believed her to be.

“If we’re done with the pleasantries, Doctor…” Skye interjected. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk.

“There’s something I need to talk to you about…”

—

**_Toronto Police Headquarters, 40 College Street  – Briefing Room_ **

The situation room of the Toronto Police Services’ headquarters had become a hotbed of activity since Skye’s arrival in the city… and things had only gotten busier when Chief Alexandra MacDonald issued a warrant for the young superhuman’s arrest yesterday.

Toronto Police suspected Skye to be guilty of several incidents involving destruction of property owned by SDI. Her alleged violent assault of an SDI employee yesterday seemed to be the tipping point to force Chief MacDonald’s hand in regards to the Skye problem.

Of course, none of this was accurate and was simply an excuse concocted by SDI to have the Police take care of their problem for them.

SSgt. Derick Eddison was not present today as he was still recovering from getting concussed by a blow to the head courtesy of Brandt pistol-whipping him. He was slated to conduct a press conference concerning the whole search for Skye thing, but that wasn’t in the cards due to that concussion.

Instead, Chief MacDonald opted to deliver the press conference herself, making her way to the podium with multiple reporters of all stripes awaiting to hear what she had to say.

“Good afternoon, ladies & gentlemen.” Officer Faiza Karim stood on the podium to introduce Chief MacDonald. “Today, Staff Sergeant Derick Eddison was slated to provide an update on our recent investigation behind a series of incidents on SDI Genomics-owned property, but he unfortunately couldn’t be here. Instead, Chief Alexa MacDonald has personally requested that she provide an update on where we stand at this time.”

Chief MacDonald walked towards the podium as Officer Karim stepped aside. Her voice was firm and she began to spoke with a purpose.

“I thank the members of the media for their attendance today,” Chief MacDonald began to speak. “Yesterday, the Toronto Police Service issued an arrest warrant for a suspect only identified as ‘Skye’, who was suspected to be the culprit responsible for several incidents involving trespassing and illegal destruction of property owned by the SDI Genomics firm.”

The video screen next to the podium turned on to show the surveillance footage they recently release of Skye attacking two security guards working at Psi MediLabs.

“We were initially hesitant on issuing this warrant even after receiving reports of Skye’s involvement in these incidents due to the conflicting reports we got that suggested a different story,” Chief MacDonald continued. “But after hearing word of a violent incident at Kensington Market yesterday that Skye apparently incited, we simply could not stand by and let this go on unimpeded.”

“That’s why we decided to go ahead with what we’ve dubbed ‘Operation: Skyfall’. Our people will not stop until we put Skye behind bars to keep the citizens of this city safe.”

Before Chief MacDonald could go on with her briefing, a voice belonging to City-One News’ Carson Stevens interrupted.

“Chief, I’m sorry to interrupt,” Carson Stevens had something important to say. “We’ve just received a tip that the patient at Toronto General Health Centre who was involved in that Psi MediLabs explosion was found dead early this morning.”

“Hm?”

“It’s a tip we got from a viewer a few minutes ago.” Carson spoke up again. “I trust that your people will be on top of this?”

“We’ll get everyone on this case, Carson,” Chief MacDonald replied. “Thank you for bringing this information to us.”

On that abrupt note, Chief MacDonald ended the press conference early, wanting to get her people to TGHC right away to investigate Isaac Ellerton’s death. She left the podium as Officer Karim tried to dissuade the media from asking any further questions.

—

“I understand you’ve dealt with SDI’s brand of business, Doc…” Skye asked matter-of-factly, “…even well before I showed up. You ever hear of something called ‘Project Singularity’?”

“You must’ve seen the CBC News report talking about it.” Dover replied.

“I have.” Skye confirmed Dr. Dover’s claim, as she recalled the research trip she took with Finn yesterday.

“Unfortunately, while I’ve seen the type of dealings SDI’s people have been up to,” Dover had some bad news. “I don’t recall seeing anything greater about Project Singularity. But, that is to say that I don’t think it’s a ghost story. There might be some truth to it.”

“That seems to be a common theme with these guys.” Skye voiced her thoughts. Nothing that SDI or its mercenaries did surprised her anymore. There would be no depth too low for them to stoop to, it would seem.

“In any case, I had a lot of research on SDI saved on this USB flash drive.” Dover brandished a rounded black-and-gold USB drive from his pocket and showed it to Skye. “As you can probably tell, this has been a fascination of mine for quite some time, even back in my days with Health Canada.”

“Definitely,” Skye replied. It was quite clear to her that Professor Roland Keisler’s attempted kidnapping of Dr. Dover had an ulterior motive beyond just for the purposes of Project: Unity. Now she was beginning to see why.

“I think whatever I have in this will help you in finding out what SDI is up t–” Dover began his sentence before being unexpectedly cut off by two shots that pierced through his office’s window and right into the doctor’s chest. One final shot to Dover’s heart sent him right into the bookshelf behind his desk.

Skye got a glimpse of where the apparent killing shot was fired. She saw a sniper perched on the rooftops a few blocks away from the King West Medical Building. Her face crumpled into a look of guilt for a brief moment before it turned into a look of silent anger.

She took the USB drive that Dover was talking about from his bloodied hand before putting it into her jacket’s front pocket.

From afar, the sniper saw Skye huddled over Dover’s dead body through the broken glass. He soon focused his gun on her, his scope targeting her head.

“Eagle Nest, I have a visual on Sierra Kilo,” the sniper contacted through an earpiece he was wearing. He had Skye in his sights and he was ready to take her down if given the order. “Do I go in for the kill?”

“Negative, Stone.” The voice on the other line, “Eagle Nest”, remarked. “The Chief explicitly ordered you not to eliminate Target Designation – Sierra Kilo.”

“Understood.” Stone replied before running off from his spot.

Kathy had heard loud banging from her front office desk, which led her to Dr. Dover’s office and the sight of Skye sitting over her now-deceased boss.

She naturally shrieked in abject terror before Skye shushed her.

“Miss, I didn’t kill the doctor here…” Skye extended one hand out to get the secretary to keep quiet. “…but I’m about to find the bastard who did. Excuse me.”

With a temporary sense of determination on her mind, Skye got up and ran past Kathy into the front office and then the hallway of the fourth floor.

On instinct, Kathy called 911 as soon as Skye left the office.

While her body crashed into the walls of the narrow fourth floor hallway due to how fast she was running, Skye managed to reach the stairwell at the end of the hallway. Rather than run up the stairs, she leapt onto the railings above her before jumping to the railings on the opposite end, which led her to the fifth and final floor.

Behind the door was the entrance to the rooftop area of the King Street Medical Building. Skye didn’t have time for formalities, so she just punched the door open, as snow and wind breezed past her.

The blowing snow made it difficult for most anyone to get a good look outside. That’s why it helps to have superhuman sight, which aided Skye in spotting the sniper, who had already leapt through a window of the building next to where he had made his nest of sorts with the help of a grappling rope.

With the swift grace of an Olympic hurdler, Skye jumped from rooftop to rooftop, reaching the sniper’s former position in no time. She saw where Stone had jumped, naturally leaping into the broken window so that she could continue her pursuit.

The building was a condominium, so Skye and the sniper ended up leaping into a two-room apartment, where a couple watched in horror as the chase continued.

While the sniper had already left the apartment, Skye looked to the terrified couple and gave an aside glance before running out of the room to continue her pursuit.

Though the sniper had a five-second lead on Skye, that head start quickly disappeared as the blue-haired superhuman had caught up to him at the elevator room easily.

Skye kicked Stone just as quickly as she ran him down, sending her foe right into one of the closed elevator doors. She ripped away the tactical vest and ski mask the sniper was wearing, revealing a non-descript Caucasian man with a crew cut.

The sniper remained suspiciously calm, even with a literal superpowered person staring him down at present.

“I’ve had enough of your bosses’ bullshit, so you better tell me everything you know…” Skye’s patience wore thin. She had enough of SDI’s manhunt and its devastating reach harming anyone that happened to be in the line of fire.

She forcefully opened the elevator door that Stone was kicked into, revealing that the elevator itself was many floors above. Skye then grabbed the sniper by the head and held it just over the edge.

“Otherwise… you’ll be taking a one-way trip to the ground floor.” Skye threatened in a rather uncharacteristically dark tone.

It seemed that the struggle to maintain some semblance of humanity was one that continued to rage on in Skye’s head.

For the first time ever, Skye feared the superpowers she seemed to enjoy having all her life and the potential harm they could’ve caused if she had lost control again.

Despite certain death coming his way, Stone still remained stoic, true to his codename. He began to laugh. It seemed that Skye’s aggression, for whatever reason, was amusing the unmasked sniper.

Skye squeezed her fists, trying her damndest not to give in to her anger and shut this guy up the hard way. She didn’t want a repeat of Kensington Market to happen at this very moment.

“You think the old man was my target?” Stone finally talked. His tone showing that same brash arrogance his face was showing. “He was only the beginning… you’ll soon have the blood of many on your han–”

Skye had enough of the sniper’s ranting, so she just picked him up and knocked him out with an elbow to the back of his head. Despite taking down Dover’s assassin, Skye looked sullen. Even though she didn’t want to admit it, she knew that the assassin may have been right about the “blood of many” on her hands.

Maybe now was a good time to call Finn for help. He could’ve been a big help with finding out more intel.

Skye remained steadfast, however. She left Finn and the comforting confines of SafeHaven for a reason. She didn’t want to see him suffer anymore than he already did when she stood side-by-side with him.

There was no question in Skye’s mind that stopping this conspiracy was her burden to carry alone. Nothing was going to change her mind.  

Pulling out Dr. Dover’s USB in her pocket, Skye looked at it intently before returning it into the front pocket and walking off as the sirens of police cars loudly blared in the distance.


	3. Chapter 3

**Act III – A Greater State of Mind**

**_Toronto General Health Centre – Investigating A Murder_ **

“Y’know something, Tom?” A member of the Toronto Police Services’ Homicide Squad asked his fellow officer while they looked at what was left of the scene of Isaac Ellerton’s death. “Why doesn’t the Chief call that Northern Light guy to take care of this superperson they’re goin’ after?”

“I hear it’s because the Chief thinks we can handle this case without help…” Tom, the other officer who was there, answered. “That kinda makes me feel good, to see the Chief have so much confidence in us.”

“Yeah, I agree.” The other Homicide Squad officer adjusted his hat. “Y’know I could take down that superpowers woman. I have a black belt in judo.”

“No, you don’t!” Tom dismissed his fellow officer’s outrageous claims.

“Keep it down, you two…” the voice of Inspector Bradley Coates interrupted the playful arguing. “We have a murder scene to investigate.”

Chief MacDonald had called for the TPS’ Homicide Squad to deal with the murder of Isaac late last night at the Toronto General Health Centre. Inspector Coates was the head of this unit, tasked with finding who killed Isaac last night.

With that in mind, Inspector Coates had the scene of the crime — a hallway outside of the hospital room Isaac was staying in — taped off while his people had a closer look at the grisly crime scene.

Isaac’s corpse — mangled cranium and all — had been put in a body bag a long while ago, but the blood from the fatal gunshot still lined the vending machine, as did blood-stained handprints streaking across it.

Inspector Coates and his people paused briefly, taken by surprise by how brutal the murder appeared to have been carried out for an alleged stealth assassination-style hit.

Elsewhere, Officer Laurie Wilkins was searching a stairwell where Isaac’s killer had apparently been hiding at the time of the murder. Right at the end of the first set of steps, Officer Wilkins spotted a discarded object left on the floor.

It was unclear if the killer had accidentally left it, but it seemed to be his calling card. In this case, it was a notebook whose front and back covers were stained with blood.

One branded with the blue-and-yellow icon of SafeHaven Homeless Shelter.

Officer Wilkins skimmed through the notebook and saw scribbled notes and doodles on various pages. What got her interest, however, was what was written on the inside front cover of that notebook: “F. Finwick”

“Inspector…” Wilkins talked through her walkie-talkie, a small hint of excitement (over finding all-too-important evidence, and not due to any deaths) evident in her voice. “I think we’ve got the perfect evidence to find our killer.”

—

**_Cafe 6ix NetGaming – Yonge & Gerrard Street_ **

After her run-in with yet another one of SDI’s mercs, Skye decided to find a place to analyze the USB flash drive that Dr. Dover had given her before he was murdered. She found a small 24-hour Internet cafe along Yonge Street that was above a first-floor Greek restaurant.

Instead of pulling up her hoodie to keep herself hidden, Skye found a generic blue toque on the streets that she snatched without problem. It helped keep her warm as the snow increased at this point of the afternoon.

Skye entered the door that was the main entrance for Cafe 6ix NetGaming, an Internet cafe that was largely made up of Ryerson University students looking for a place to enjoy their online gaming. Despite its focus on computer games, the interior of the Cafe had a homely feel to it, various pictures and posters on the wall paying tribute to the city it called home. Finn had talked about this place in passing a few times as a hub he used for lounging around on the Internet, as it was within a 5 minute walking distance from SafeHaven.

Despite the fact that Cafe 6ix was close enough to SafeHaven, Skye again didn’t think about it too much, as she was still determined to bring down the Singularity conspiracy alone.

Without hesitation, Skye found an empty desktop computer and made herself comfortable. She typed in the password (“cafetoronto”) to access the main screen.

“Let’s see what kind of secrets you’re hiding…” Skye removed Dr. Dover’s USB drive from her jacket’s front pocket and promptly inserted it into the desktop’s USB slot. Almost right away, a window popped up (listing the name of Dover’s flash drive simply as “Documents & Data”), which showed that the USB drive contained a multitude of folders.

While some of the folders (“Records”, “Tax Files”, etc.) were for Dover’s own personal reference, Skye saw a few folders helpfully labeled “SDI Files I” and so on for each succeeding number.

Opting to cut the middleman, Skye chose to open all of the SDI Files folders at the same time. She decided that she’d simply  just read them simultaneously. The computer screen was soon covered in heavily redacted dossiers and reports on SDI’s illegal business practices.

Skye realized that Dover must’ve been pretending that he didn’t know much about SDI and its top-secret projects, because this USB drive was filled with enough information that proved his claims were wrong.

The file labeled “REPO UNIT I – STRIKE TEAM BRAVO” highlighted Brandt’s team, who were tasked with hunting down ‘rogue’ experiments to repossess them. That didn’t exactly explain they had been so focused on hunting Skye down.

As far as Skye knew, she didn’t fit the definition of “rogue experiment”, which made her all the more confused on why Brandt’s strike team had targeted her.

Skye’s attention coalesced towards one certain document that yet again had that damn symbol front and centre. Whatever this document was, this pretty much spelled out for her that SDI was at the forefront of that mystery arrowhead sigil that made her life a living hell.

As if that wasn’t enough, Skye saw another set of documents on the computer screen that blew this whole conspiracy wide open for her. These were mission reports compiled over the past few years — all of which were centered on incidents involving a superpowered individual. That’s when she realized that SDI had been watching her for quite some time now, and not just ever since she arrived in Toronto two weeks ago. They had known about Skye and her powers for quite some time… perhaps maybe a bit longer.

To add to the cherry on the top of all this was the document labeled “PROJECT FILES – SN-01”,  which was basically a heavily-redacted file on Project Singularity itself. A lot of the details were blacked out, though it seemed to imply that the Canadian government (at least the one circa 1993) had some sort of involvement with it.

The name “Gerald Selfridge” appeared a few times, surprisingly not among the many things redacted on the document. One instance even identified him as the “Founder and CEO” of SDI Genomics.

And then came what happened when Skye got a glimpse of the picture attached to the document.

The photo was of a sleeping baby encased in an advanced incubator at an industrial, high-tech lab facility somewhere. There was something incredibly familiar to Skye about the baby in the photo… she just couldn’t figure out why that was the case for her.

Upon seeing the photo, more strange images flashed in Skye’s mind. She saw that woman running in the rain from when she stumbled her way into Toronto again, as well as the man in the shadows and the blue syringes she saw from her visit to Psi MediLabs. It was almost like these dossiers were now literally helping to make sense of the bizarre visions that kept tormenting Skye for quite some time.

Skye pulled out the USB drive from the desktop, which caused all the folders and documents on-screen to disappear. She had seen enough. Her mind had endured enough.

She soon left Cafe 6ix, having all the information she needed to come up with a plan to stop SDI for good.

—

**_SafeHaven Homeless Shelter – Early Evening_ **

Finn’s day had been mostly uneventful, thanks in large part to being asleep for most of it in the hopes of recovering from his gunshot wound. Having a bit of Skye’s blood inside of him to help make things easier in terms of healing helped to ease Finn somewhat.

Yes, he was still worried about Skye, but a day where he could just relax and not be in the middle of a potentially life-threatening situation was something Finn kind of relished.

As usual, Finn relied on his video games to escape reality, if only for a brief bit. Today was his day to cool off. He was deep into a session of a Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 online match with Leo Stein and Kimmy Anderson, who had naturally heard about his near-death experience due to Finn telling them about it.

Leo’s character in the game had just rescued Finn’s character from being killed by another player nicknamed “bigdawg293”, then finishing him off with a headshot.

“Yeah, consider that me returning the favor for that time you saved me from those thugs a few weeks back.” Leo’s voice buzzed from Finn’s headset, satisfied as ever about his in-game rescue of his buddy.

“Great play there, buddy.” Finn smiled. “And nice way to finish that dude off to seal the deal.”  

“Anyways, how’s your back feeling?” Leo was curious about Finn’s condition. “Not many people I know survive getting shot near the spine.”

“Well, not many people have a friend who has superpowers like I do,” Finn replied. Even if he tried to ignore it, he still had Skye on his mind. She just left that kind of lasting impression on him.

“Fair point… um… Kimmy?” Leo trailed off as muffled tears began to be heard from the speakers. “What’s going down?”

“I just got a text from Rachel about Isaac,” Kimmy could barely even say a single word without sadness taking over. “She s-said.. that they found him dead at the h-hosp… hospital today…”

“Wait….what the hell?!” Finn and Leo both yelled simultaneously, in collective shock over the news that they just heard.

Finn quickly pondered to himself about the circumstances that could’ve led to Isaac’s death. His first idea was that Isaac succumbed to his meningococcal disease that he had contracted recently. His second, more morbid idea for what happened to Isaac was that someone involved with SDI’s Singularity conspiracy had killed him.

“Finn… you still there?” Kimmy asked in a more nuanced way.

“Yeah… I think…” Finn quickly answered. “It’s just that… I think I may know the reason why Isaac’s dead.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Act IV – Head In The Clouds**

“Wait a second…” Leo, who was there in person at Finn’s apartment upon a suggestion, couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re saying that some assassins working for an evil genetics company killed Isaac?”

“Leo, one of my best friends is some superpowered nomad with shitty-ass memories,” Finn replied, incredulous at Leo not hearing out his story. “Surely, you’d believe that some evil geneticists out to get that friend of mine would be low enough to murder Isaac as revenge.”

The bullet wound on Finn’s back had almost healed up, while all the back injuries he had sustained prior had completely been healed. The miracles of super-recovery aided by the blood of a superpowered friend.

“Okay, okay… calm down.” Leo retorted. “Speaking of your superfriend Skye, any idea where she went to?”

“Dunno.” Finn was still in the dark of where his friend had ended up at in her apparent mission to track down SDI’s head. “Part of me wishes she was still here. Maybe she could’ve helped us with this.”

“You’ve got to move on, Finn.” Leo tried to offer some advice. “I mean, yes, Isaac might’ve been killed by this evil company, but your friend Skye might’ve left for a good reason.”

“Maybe so…” Finn shrugged while drinking a glass of water. “But I’ve realized that I can’t just leave Skye by herself. She’s gonna need help.”

“Hold on, Finn,” Leo backed off slightly. “Don’t tell me you’re getting me dragged into this whole conspiracy business…”

“Don’t worry,” Finn reassured his panicky friend. “This isn’t your fight. You need to be somewhere safe.”

It looked like Finn had a lot more in common with Skye than he thought, and it wasn’t certainly just because of her blood in his veins.

—

**_The Back Alley Behind Spy Shops Canada on Richmond Street East – The Plan_ **

If Skye was going to find a way to seek out SDI’s reclusive CEO and whatever else he was up to, she decided that it was time for her to utilize her smarts rather than outright brute force.

Stealing stuff wasn’t exactly something Skye did regularly (…at least in recent years. She did scrounge up food wherever she could in her teens while living a nomadic life), but the things she was taking from this spycraft store were necessary for the next part of her plan to take down SDI.

Skye used the backdoor to gain access to where the Spy Shops Canada was keeping their inventory. She managed to do what she came for without arousing any suspicion her way, leaving as quickly as she entered.

Inside Skye’s bag were miniature trackers, a wireless listening apparatus, a microsized camera, as well as some of the classified SDI files that she printed out back at Cafe 6ix.

Her plan was simple: find a way to draw out SDI’s mercs and hope that would lead her to Gerald Selfridge himself. Skye thought she could use Selfridge’s apparent fascination with her and her superhuman abilities to an advantage.

Of course, figuring out the plan was the easy part. Actually putting said plan into action was a lot more complicated for Skye, especially given her newfound notoriety thanks to the Toronto Police’s city-wide arrest and search warrant for her.

But maybe, just maybe, utilizing her fugitive status was probably the only way Skye’s plan was going to work as intended. It wasn’t going to help ease her fears about potentially being a true danger to everyone, but Skye really had no choice now.

Skye noticed a Toronto Police-marked armored car parked in front of the building beside Spy Shops Canada. The armored car had an angular, futuristic-looking design that made it completely different from the other armored vehicles the TPS had in their garage.

“Fuck it. I’m doing this.” Skye swore under her breath while she inched towards the armored car. She ripped open the door forcefully, but settled it down gently along the pavement, which caught the attention of a few pedestrians walking by. She moved to the driver’s seat and started the vehicle.

Skye immediately shifted the car into “Drive”, racing it along Richmond Street. She turned on the armored car’s sirens, so that she could get the other vehicles on the road to move aside.

The tumultuous weather created by the amount of snowfall at the moment made for a rather rocky ride for Skye, but she did manage to get the stolen Toronto Police armored car onto Cherry Street. That’s the exact moment when the radio built into the car buzzed off, as the voice of the dispatcher at the Toronto Police’s 51 Division outpost spoke.

“Armor-One, do you copy?” The dispatcher asked desperately, “We have reports from other officers on the field that you seem to be driving erratically and creating a public safety issue. Report immediately.”

“I’m sorry, Officer… don’t mind if I take out your fancy new car out for a joyride…” Skye immediately answered as she moved into Lake Shore Boulevard East. “I kinda needed it for some business to take care of.”

On the other end, the dispatcher made the call to any Toronto Police officer within distance. “All units, we have a rogue Armor-One car along Lake Shore. Do not hesitate to take it down and its hijacker however you can. Just don’t destroy the vehicle too much. It’s worth a hell of a lot of money for us.”

Skye had made it to the Port Lands, but the sounds of wailing sirens in the distance signalled that she was about to be pursued by the Police.

—

**_Toronto Police Headquarters, Chief MacDonald’s Office – 1800h_ **

“You sure this Finwick kid’s the one who murdered that hospital patient?” Chief MacDonald looked towards the video board in her office that had an image of Inspector Bradley Coates from TGHC.

Chief MacDonald had been listening to Inspector Coates make his case for sending in a team to arrest Finn for supposedly killing Isaac at Toronto General Health Centre. She didn’t think Finn was the suspect they were looking for, despite Coates’ insistence.

“The evidence speaks for itself, Chief.” Inspector Coates replied, holding the bloodied notebook that apparently belonged to Finn. “With your authorization, we’ll call for a unit to bring this guy in.”

“Do it.” Chief MacDonald intoned. “We keep getting outfoxed by some mystery woman, at least one victory would be fine.”

“Roger that.” Inspector Coates signed off as the video screen shut off.

“This city’s criminals must be having a field day with all this stuff we’ve dug ourselves into…” Chief MacDonald contemplated to herself, sitting in a moment of respite behind her desk. Said desk had become a complete mess, with files and various papers laying around. It was clear that her department’s inability to apprehend Skye was starting to take its toll on the fifteen-year veteran of TPS.

The phone on the Chief’s desk rang. On instinct, she picked it up and heard the voice of the dispatcher from 51 Division.

“Chief, I think you might want to hear what’s going down now on the Port Lands…” the dispatcher said. “One of our new armored cars has been hijacked. I’ve called for multiple units to bring it down.”

“Any word on the carjacker?” Chief MacDonald questioned.

“We believe the suspect’s a female,” the dispatcher provided an immediate reply. “…and someone incredibly stupid and insane enough to try and make off with police property.”

Chief MacDonald remained uncomfortably silent. She knew exactly who the dispatcher was talking about.

“….Chief?”

“Constable Jimenez… tell everyone to pull back right now.” Chief MacDonald finally spoke up.

“But, ma’am…” Constable Jimenez was flabbergasted by the Chief’s decision.

“We’re dealing with a superpowered suspect,” Chief MacDonald explained her rationale, “One who has proven to be difficult to put down. That’s why I’m delegating this situation to SDI and their people.”

Chief MacDonald activated the big video screen behind her desk again, bringing up an advanced user interface. She soon used it to make a video conference call to SDI’s head office.

Soon enough, the face of Gerald Selfridge, SDI’s CEO, appeared on the screen. He was currently in his extravagant office with the usual neutral look he had most of the times on his face. He appeared to look a bit more ill than the last time Chief MacDonald spoke with him. Clearly, he was being afflicted with some form of illness.

“Ah, the Chief of the Toronto Police, Alexandra MacDonald.” Mr. Selfridge started to talk in that formal-like manner, with some coughing interrupting him. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your sudden call?”

“I believe you’re going to love this, Mr. Selfridge,” Chief MacDonald sarcastically replied, the seemingly-endless womanhunt for Skye clearly not doing her any favors. “Your lost toy’s out there with my department’s property. Get your strike force to extract her. Now.”

“I’m afraid I am going to have to disagree with that course of action,” Selfridge hacked yet again.

“And why is that?” Chief MacDonald was surprised at the SDI CEO’s refusal of sending in the strike team.

“Because I’ll see to it that this threat to public safety is handled myself.” Selfridge abruptly stopped the feed from his office, leaving a screen of static on Chief MacDonald’s video board.

Chief MacDonald shook her head, as if she were questioning her own judgement in allowing SDI to get involve with her department’s case.

—

Back on the streets of Toronto, Skye still had the Toronto Police’s advanced armored vehicle with her, having made her way to the Port Lands for the next part of her plan. The difficult part of avoiding a crowded area to prevent potential civilian injuries and/or casualties was done. Now it was simply a matter of just getting SDI’s attention.

By the time she had entered the Port Lands, the entire fleet of Toronto Police cars chasing her had mysteriously stopped their pursuit of her.

Skye immediately stopped in the middle of Cherry Street and Unwin Avenue, which left the Armor-One prototype car literally right in the intersection. That certainly got the attention of the few people who were driving their cars there.

Before Skye could think for too long, she picked up the sound of helicopters approaching from far off in the snow-filled sky.

In mere moments, three military-grade choppers soon appeared above the Port Lands.

“Blackbird I to Eagle Nest,” One of the pilots of the sleek black combat helicopters reported. “Permission to engage Sierra Kilo?”

“Acknowledged.” the voice of Eagle Nest authorized an attack on the helicopters’ shared target.

“Blackbird II, Blackbird III, fire when ready.” The pilot of the Blackbird I helicopter spoke to his allies in the air.

On cue, the military helicopters rained down enough bullets to eliminate over fifty targets in a single shot on the intersection.

 _“Three helicopters just to take me down? How predictable.”_ Skye really wasn’t surprised anymore at the lengths SDI and its many hired mercenaries would got just to capture or kill her.

With gunfire from above raging, the people who had happened to be at that unfortunate area at the time tried their best to escape, but some weren’t lucky as the were ripped apart by the bullets.

Skye knew that these SDI helicopters were fixated on her, so she ran east on Unwin, attempting her best effort to draw away the helicopters’ fire from civilians. The choppers were relentless. They still continued to shoot away at the fleeing Skye.

“Vulture Missile I firing…” The pilot of Blackbird II said over her radio, aiming the helicopter’s targeting reticule at Skye. The chopper fired a missile towards Skye’s position, causing the young woman to strafe out of harm’s way. While the missile ultimately missed its mark, the resulting explosion was strong enough to knock Skye through the door of a massive warehouse.

“Ungh…” Skye grunted as she quickly got back up. Part of her was thankful that she didn’t have to deal with the Blackbird helicopters for the time being. She now found herself in an apparently-empty warehouse, allowing for a brief moment of breathing space.

It was just unfortunate that said lull ended as quickly as it lasted. Three massive spotlights directed their focus to where Skye was standing, followed by two entire groups of soldiers in black camouflage emerging from the darkness to surround her.

Despite being greatly outnumbered, Skye simply stood her ground. But, her focus seemed to waver for an instant as the next person appeared from the shadows.  

“Mr. Gerald Selfridge, exactly the man I was looking for.” Skye looked towards the shadowy man with a refocused edge. She was ready.

“I’ve got some unfinished business with you…”


	5. Chapter 5

**Act V – Fight The Future**

**_SafeHaven Homeless Shelter – The Frame-Up_ **

Finn never felt better like he did at this point of the evening. His body had now fully recovered from its injuries, and now he was more determined than ever to find a way to help Skye stop SDI… wherever the hell she was.

His bed was lined with the gear that he deemed necessary for whatever mission he was about to undertake. Despite the fact that Skye explicitly told him to simply heal up and think about his future, Finn’s mind was made up now.

Standing by Skye’s side against Project Singularity was where he needed to be.

Finn loaded up his brown backpack with a map of the city, his laptop, and some snacks because he anticipated that this was going to be a long journey. Unfortunately, that journey was about to take a rough ride even before it actually began.

Outside Finn’s apartment, Miss Meredith Meads was having a back and forth with Inspector Coates, who had brought his unit to arrest Finn for apparently murdering Isaac.

“With all due respect, Inspector,” Miss Meads was firm. She didn’t care if she was impeding a police investigation, she believed Finn was not a criminal. “Finch Finwick is a young man who is an upstanding citizen and not this thug you’ve made him out to be.”

“Ms. Meads, if you do not stand aside, I’ll have no choice but to charge you with aiding and abetting a fugitive.” Inspector Coates coldly threatened. He was here to get results done, not appeal to sympathy.

Even though Miss Meads didn’t want to put one of her tenants in harm’s way, she really had no choice in the matter. She begrudgingly stepped aside to allow for Coates’ people to bust through the doors of Finn’s apartment.

“Wait, what the hell is this?!” Finn asked in an exasperated tone before being tackled onto his bed.

“Finch Finwick, you are officially under arrest for manslaughter and the murder of Isaac Ellerton.” Inspector Coates stood at the doorway of Finn’s apartment, while allowing for his fellow Toronto Police officers to storm through so that they could subdue their suspect.

The Toronto Police officers lifted Finn off his bed and shoved him to the ground. Upon doing so, they put his hands behind his back and immediately handcuffed him.

“I didn’t kill Isaac! I swear to god! I didn’t kill him!” Finn tried in vain to plead his innocence. It was just unfortunate for him that the only other person that could vouch for him was not only missing in action, but also the most wanted fugitive in Toronto.

Finn knew that he was nowhere near Toronto General Health Centre at the time of Isaac’s death — he was literally laying in bed recovering from gunshot wounds — but the Police wanted answers and didn’t have time for questions that disproved the conclusion they came to.

As it stood for the Toronto Police, Finch Finwick was the man who murdered Isaac Ellerton, and he was going to be convicted for his supposed crimes.

—

**_An Empty Warehouse in the Toronto Port Lands – 1920 hours_ **

This was an all-too familiar sight for Skye: heavily-armed soldiers pointing their assault weapons at her. It was just that this time around, there was an unfamiliar sight for her standing right in the middle of it all. The one person who was responsible for the endless hell that Brandt and his men, Prof. Keisler and Project: Unity, and even “Colonel” Auerbach and his strike unit had brought on Skye and the people she called her friends.

That man was Gerald Selfridge, the CEO of SDI Genomics, alias “The Chief” — the man who had authorized legions and legions of soldiers to endlessly hunt Skye down in the name of a conspiracy that had her in its heartless sights.

“You really think you and your soldiers can stop me?” Skye kept herself indignant. She found herself face-to-face with the CEO of SDI Genomics himself, but she was absolutely not going to be cowed by his presence.

“Subject SK-591…” Selfridge addressed Skye as if he had known her for her entire life. “You have finally come to your senses and decided to come home instead of continuing this meaningless crusade of yours. After all, you are property of SDI Genomics.”

As Selfridge spoke, there was some hacking intermixed with his sentences, as was the case for the past few days.

“I don’t know what you’re going on about…” Skye was befuddled by what Selfridge had called her. “But I’m not here to ‘come home’,  I’ve come to stop your company’s deadly plans once and for all.”

“Unfortunately for you,” Mr. Selfridge continued his spiel. “You will be doing no such thing this evening. Instead, you will begin your journey in taking your place in evolutionary history… even if I have to do it by force.”

Skye’s eyes narrowed in both anger and focus. She had no idea why Selfridge had called her “SK-591”, but she knew all too well that the man facing her right now had nothing but bad intentions for her. Skye was not in the mood for Selfridge’s bluster.

“The only thing you’re gonna be doing tonight is getting your ass kicked so I can bring you to justice. So you can answer for all the lives your conspiracy has endangered, you sick son of a bitch.” Skye sounded positively heroic, which seemed to make her feel kinda good on the inside.

Skye thought back to those moments in the past — whether if it was Nipigon, Gravenhurst or Laval — where she had been a hero in either saving lives or stopping criminals. She never really thought much about what motivated her to do the right thing in those instances and even in her short time in Toronto. Whatever it was that willed her to act boldly, Skye simply concluded that it boiled down to her base instincts.

Skye knew that she was a good person at her very core. That was something that no amount of hidden mental programming embedded within her could ever change.

“You are sadly mistaken about our so-called ‘conspiracy’, SK-591… or should I call you ‘Skye’?” Selfridge mockingly dressed down the young superhuman who stared him down. “That name you’ve given yourself… is it your attempt at deluding yourself with falsehoods of humanity?”

Skye kept herself tempered while Selfridge was deriding her very identity. While she really wanted to silence him for mocking the name that helped define who she was, there were far more damning crimes for Selfridge to answer for.

“We are not ‘evil’, we are simply the forerunners of the next, singular step towards higher forms of evolution. And you will soon embrace your true nature.”

Skye was still confused by whatever the hell Mr. Selfridge was ranting about. And quite frankly, she really didn’t give a shit about what he was saying. She was just about ready to kick his ass.

“You will find out soon enough…” Selfridge rolled up one of his sleeves to reveal some sort of a high-tech wrist gauntlet he was wearing. He began to press some buttons on that gauntlet while he continued to monologue. “And when you do, you’ll find out your true destiny when you achieve true Singularity.”

The rage within Skye was building. For what seemed like an eternity, she was being hunted down by a mercenary army who wanted to eliminate her for the secrets she apparently had inside of her. And now, Skye found out just how devastating SDI’s conspiracy really was. This was her chance to put an end to the nightmare for good, and she wasn’t going to pass up on it.

“You might be the CEO of a multi-million dollar genetics firm,” Skye clenched her fists. She was just about done with the grandstanding. “But when I get done with you, you’re going to regret the day you and your army of thugs ever targeted me or my friends.”

Selfridge didn’t reply to Skye’s threat. He simply remained as calm as ever.

Skye’s enhanced sight picked up five streaks of light flying above the warehouse from afar. The streaks of light moved closer and closer to the warehouse, almost sounding like a fleet of fighter jets making their landing.

Soon, the streaks floated from above and slowly descended in front of Mr. Selfridge. Once the white glow dissipated, five humanoid beings wearing matching grey armor all around them stood revealed.

Skye didn’t know what these things were, but she knew that she was going to be in for a hell of a fight.

“These are my Genetic Extractors. Advanced beings created in SDI laboratories and designed to seek out genetic imperfections…” Selfridge lorded his powerful assemblage that stood beside him. “…in order to terminate them with extreme prejudice.”

Unimpressed by Mr. Selfridge’s new toys, Skye readied herself into a fighting stance. She was pretty much sick and tired of SDI’s scheming at this point. Skye simply wanted to fight.

With a quick motion, Selfridge’s Extractors began to converge on Skye, beginning their unified attack. The Extractors — all assigned codenames from the first five letters of the Greek Alphabet — fought with superior strength and technological advancements on their side. These monstrosities were a far cry from the special ops soldiers and common thugs Skye had fought previously.

Skye’s superhuman reflexes really came in handy at a time like this, helping her get a sense of what she was up against. She nimbly evaded the Extractors’ mechanically-enhanced strikes and projectiles easily, which naturally irritated Selfridge as he looked on.

“Looks like your junk heap can’t even touch me…” Skye turned to the increasingly-frustrated Selfridge to taunt him. It felt good for her to be able to use her abilities in a context that didn’t involve endangering innocent lives.

Extractor Beta tried to catch Skye by surprise with his twin gatling-gun hands, but his target was too fast for him. He ended up firing his bullets right into some of the SDI soldiers that stood on the outside.

Selfridge grew flustered by his super-weapons being unable to eliminate Skye. He again pressed a button on his watched, which caused the Extractors to regroup around him.

Alpha pressed its massive hydraulic arms towards Skye, who simply dodged it and smacked the armored soldier with a hard punch to the head. The force of her strike was enough to shatter that one Extractor’s large visor.

“Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon!” Selfridge saw Skye taking down one of his elite warriors, prompting him to issue out orders. “Assist Alpha in subduing Subject SK-591 immediately!”

Skye wasn’t deterred by the other Extractors. She continued to literally rip apart Alpha’s heavy armor piece-by-piece.

“Primary Target Acquired – Deploying Anti-Superhuman Countermeasures.” Extractor Alpha’s computerized voice intoned while Skye was smashing him every which way.

“Okay… that doesn’t sound good.” Skye talked to herself.

Vents opened up on the shoulders of Alpha, which released an orange-hued dust cloud that engulfed Skye in an instant. She coughed briefly as she ingested the dust before being suddenly knocked down to the ground by a blast of energy from Extractor Epsilon’s hand cannon.

Skye gritted her teeth, trying to resist the pain she felt from Epsilon’s energy blast, which felt like being set on fire — only ten-thousand times more agonizing. Her vision started to get blurry and she had a bit of a tougher time to get back up.

“I have been watching you for quite some time now…” Selfridge looked down towards Skye. “I know what makes you tick. Your strengths… your weaknesses. I have prepared my Extractors for this exact moment, Subject SK-591. The cloud you have been exposed to is a suppressant that neutralizes superhuman abilities like yours. And now… you will experience the true power that I hold in my hands.”

Extractors Beta and Gamma streaked towards where Skye writhed in agony, proceeding to carry out Selfridge’s orders.

They repeatedly struck down Skye with their titanium-plated fists, which were now strong enough to actually hurt her.

 _“They keep beating me down like this, I won’t survive for long.”_ Skye’s mind was on fire as she was getting her ass handed to her by Selfridge’s deadly weapons. That sickening sound of steel meeting her flesh rang in her ears. “ _Time for a last-second play…”_

Skye lifted herself up and charged into Extractor Beta, soon grabbing him from behind. She then dropkicked Beta into Extractor Gamma, who was knocked over like a bowling pin.

Even with that small victory, Skye realized that the Genetic Extractors were too relentless. They’d been designed to keep on going and going even if she was getting tired. Skye may have had superhuman endurance, but even she had her limits… and she was starting to feel them thanks to the effects of the suppressing dust she had been exposed to.

“Why do you continue to resist, Subject SK-591?” Selfridge spoke with great disdain. “The suppressant will soon completely neutralize your powers and my Extractors will not stop until they eliminate you.”

“You think I’m going to give in to a madman like you?” Skye breathed heavily before falling to one knee while clutching her ribs. Fatigue was definitely settling in. “You and your conspiracy have hurt too many people that I care for. I’m not gonna fail them by letting you take me for your deranged purposes.”

“I admire your bravado, Subject SK-591,” Selfridge walked over to the kneeling Skye, bending over and grabbing her by the neck. “It is too bad that you will have to be sacrificed in the name of progress.”

Selfridge smiled before Skye defiantly headbutted the CEO of SDI Genomics, who was knocked back by the strength of that cranial collision.

“Extractors! Show no mercy!” Selfridge yelled out while checking for any laceration on his forehead that might’ve been caused by Skye’s headbutt.

Skye was feeling exhausted, but there was simply no way she’d quit now, even as the five Extractors and other armed soldiers began to surround her in a circle.

“Come and get me….” Skye, still stalwart and steel-hearted in continuing her struggle, sneered with a hint of self-confidence.

The Extractors simultaneously rushed towards Skye, right as the SDI soldiers opened fire on her. Selfridge’s armored monstrosities swung their fists at their superhuman target, who just evaded and parried each successive attack.

Despite her success in avoiding the Extractors’ furious blows, Skye felt her body starting to lag behind. Her usual lithe movements began to falter to the point that some of the bullets being fired at her by the non-armored soldiers actually made contact with her body.

Even the Extractors’ strikes began to connect, which certainly satisfied Mr. Selfridge greatly. He began to pick himself up, seeing Extractors Alpha and Epsilon brutalizing Skye to perfection.

Alpha picked up Skye by her neck and slammed her hard onto the cold pavement. Perhaps as a small measure of revenge to his foe for ripping apart his armor, Alpha pressed his boot against the side of Skye’s head.

“I am giving you one final chance to surrender yourself, Subject SK-591.” Selfridge offered an ultimatum to Skye, who struggled to get herself back to her feet. “You do that, and you will be spared from further suffering at the hands of my Genetic Extractors.”

Skye couldn’t stand anymore. Her body was broken (or as broken a superhuman’s body could end up as, anyway…), but her will certainly wasn’t.

The spark inside of Skye that pushed her to fight on just refused to be extinguished. She knew that Finn and Ava’s lives were at stake, and that giving Selfridge what he wanted was not an option.

“nnnngh… go to hell, you piece of shit.” Skye mustered up whatever strength she had left in her voice to defy her enemy. She didn’t care if the Extractors or whoever else Selfridge had lined up had her at their mercy. They’d have to literally tear her apart to get what they wanted from her.

If this was going to be Skye’s last stand, she was damn well prepared to go out in a blaze of glory.

“You have left me no other choice… Epsilon, Delta: restrain Subject SK-591 at once.” Selfridge commanded his enhanced soldiers.

Extractors Delta and Epsilon did as they were told, grabbing Skye on each arm and forcing her to her knees.

Skye put forth whatever effort she had left in her to try and free herself from the two Extractors’ collective grip, but she was far too weak to break their hold.

Selfridge again made his way to Skye, hands behind his back. The young superhuman spat in Selfridge’s face. Her strength may have been just about drained, but Skye’s spirit seemed to show no signs of slowing down.

“You have lost, SK-591.” The ever-confident SDI boss again spoke with a confident bass in his voice. “Dover.”

Skye looked on in confusion. What the hell was Selfridge talking about now?

“Auerbach.”

She was still largely perplexed by Selfridge’s actions, yet Skye began to feel a sense of dread building within her. She slowly realized that Selfridge knew what he was doing.

“Wilmut.”

Just as Selfridge finished talking, Skye screamed in great anguish, her voice filling the silent air of the warehouse. She tried to resist whatever it was Selfridge was trying to induce in her, but that was all for naught.

Skye fell unconscious, apparently enervated by a combination of both Selfridge’s actions and her fight against the Extractors.

That seemed to last for only about 30 seconds before she woke up again, all the fight in her having now been completely drained. She slowly stood up, certainly not feeling like herself. Selfridge looked on in a form of sick awe at what he had done.

Skye stood at attention as if she were a soldier, her eyes no longer a natural green, instead glowing in an eerie shade of light blue.

It appeared that Skye’s mind and personality were completely overwritten thanks to whatever it was that Selfridge did by uttering those three phrases.

Gone were Skye’s memories of Finn, Ava, Stephen O’Day, and literally everything she had experienced ever since arriving in Toronto. All of that was now supplanted by thoughts of “The Mission” and whatever orders Selfridge wanted Skye to carry out for him.

Was Skye just meant to be a superhuman weapon to be used as a tool of destruction and nothing more?

“Subject SK-591…” Selfridge addressed Skye by her serial number — and her apparent “true” name. “Are you ready to follow?”

Skye nodded in response, completely bereft of her own free will.

“Good.” Selfridge spoke in approval. “Now, Subject SK-591… remain still until you have been extracted into the transport van.”

Skye complied with Selfridge’s orders, not even putting up any sort of token resistance. Whatever programming had been initiated left Skye under Selfridge’s control completely.

The heavy-armored Extractors that stood around Selfridge soon approached Skye, who remained in her spot as she was told to.

Using the same heavy duty restraints that Prof. Keisler had utilized on Skye, the Extractors locked up their target, then escorting her into the SDI-branded armored van.

“Everything as planned. Excellent.” Selfridge chuckled to himself. It appeared his strategy to not only rip apart everything Skye held dear, but to also bring her under his fold had worked to perfection.

And now, with Skye’s unwilling cooperation, Project Singularity was back online.

**Next: The Truth About Skye is Declassified in “Unraveling”**

**(c)2016 M. Quill, WQW Productions**


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